c.-' 


o 

6 


The  Drexel  Institute  Monographs 

l  *  |  |  /  1  / 


The  Drexel  Idea 

By 

HOLLIS  GODFREY,  Sc.D.,  Eng.D.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  F.R.G.S. 
President  of  The  Drexel  Institute 


“Policies  Based  on  Facts” 


THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE 
PHILADELPHIA 

THIRTY-SECOND  AND  CHESTNUT  STREETS 

1919 


The  Drexel  Institute  Monographs 


The  Drexel  Idea 

By 

HOLLIS  GODFREY,  Sc.D.,  Eng.D.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.,  F.R.G.S. 
President  of  The  Drexel  Institute 

“Policies  Based  on  Facts” 


THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE 
PHILADELPHIA 

THIRTY-SECOND  AND  CHESTNUT  STREETS 

1919 


RESOLUTION 


RESOLVED:  That  the  address  delivered  by  Hollis 
Godfrey,  President  of  The  Drexel  Institute,  at 
the  Commencement  Exercises,  held  in  the 
auditorium  of  the  Institute  on  the  morning  of 
June  18,  1919,  expresses  the  unanimous  opinion 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees  concerning  the  policies 
and  development  of  the  Institute,  governing 
the  period  from  December,  1913,  to  date. 


The  above  resolution  was  passed  by  an 
unanimous  vote  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 


THE  DREXEL  IDEA 


A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  THE 
TWENTY-SIXTH  COMMENCEMENT 

OF 

THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE 

BY 

HOLLIS  GODFREY 


At  the  recent  Pan-American  conference  in  Washington, 
Dr.  Rowe,  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  said,  “It  is 
evident  to  every  student  of  the  world  situation  that  the  sum 
total  of  productive  goods — raw  materials,  tools,  implements, 
machinery,  etc.,  is  today  insufficient  to  meet  the  pressing  needs 
of  mankind.  The  amount  of  available  capital  (of  such  pro¬ 
ductive  goods)  at  any  one  time,  is  limited,  and  at  no  period  in 
the  life  of  this  generation  has  it  been  limited  as  at  the  present 
moment.” 

Mr.  Frank  Vanderlip  at  the  same  meeting  called  the  at¬ 
tention  of  the  Congress  and  of  the  American  people  to  the 
appalling  situation  existing  in  Europe.  “The  fate  of  Europe 
is  balanced  on  a  knife  edge,”  he  said,  and  went  on  to  say  that 
only  the  supplying  of  machinery,  materials  and  food  would 
make  possible  the  saving  of  Europe  from  a  revolution  which 
would  not  only  mean  the  gravest  consequence  for  the  old 
world  but  one  whose  effects  would  inevitably  be  felt  by  us. 

It  is  at  such  a  point  as  this  in  human  affairs  that  we  are 
here  at  the  first  Commencement  after  the  close  of  the  world’s 
war.  The  part  that  trained  minds  are  to  have  in  saving  the 
world  from  destruction  is  our  great  interest  today.  What  can 


the  Drexel  Institute  and  other  schools  like  it  do  in  this  time  of 
great  crisis? 

For  in  such  time  of  crisis  as  we  are  in  today,  the  educa¬ 
tional  policy  of  the  Drexel  Institute  as  related  to  the  Drexel 
idea  and  of  the  other  schools  like  it,  affects  the  bread  you 
eat,  the  clothes  you  wear  and  the  work  you  do  and  may  affect, 
as  it  did  in  the  great  war,  your  very  life  itself. 

There  are  three  kinds  of  education  typified  by  the  Chinese, 
the  Russian  and  the  American.  The  first  or  Chinese  type  is 
unwilling  to  open  its  eyes  to  new  experience.  It  is  crystallized 
education.  In  its  extreme  it  is  typified  by  the  candidates  for 
the  Chinese  doctor’s  degree  who  take  their  rank  on  the  basis 
of  their  pure  memorization  of  the  teachings  of  Confucius  and  of 
the  wisdom  of  centuries  ago.  The  second  or  syndicalist  type 
is  unwilling  to  use  past  experience,  throws  away  or  destroys 
the  old  and  ventures  out  on  uncharted  seas.  In  its  extreme 
it  is  typified  by  a  story  told  me  by  a  recent  visitor  to  Russia, 
of  a  Russian  Medical  School  whose  control  was  given  by  a 
group  of  syndicalists,  after  the  murder  of  the  professors,  to  the 
fireman  of  the  boilers,  who,  finding  that  strychnine  in  small 
doses  was  being  given  to  a  ward  of  convalescents,  decided  that 
what  was  good  small  should  be  better  large  and,  administering 
large  doses,  killed  all  his  patients.  But  the  third  or  American 
type  constantly  attempts  to  use  the  best  of  new  experience  and 
build  it  into  the  best  of  the  old.  I  believe  that  the  Drexel 
Institute  is  one  of  the  best  examples  of  this  type  of  education 
existing  today.  Such  education  was  our  chief  safeguard  in 
war.  It  will  be  of  the  greatest  value  as  a  safeguard  in  the 
trying  period  now  upon  us. 

It  is  of  the  use  of  this  American  type  of  education  in  Phila¬ 
delphia  and  in  the  Drexel  Institute  that  I  am  speaking  today. 
It  is  of  especial  interest  to  me,  that  the  idea  which  especially 
characterizes  the  Institute,  comes  from  Philadelphia,  for  it  con¬ 
firms  a  theory  I  have  long  held,  that  Philadelphia  is  progres¬ 
sive,  her  detractors  to  the  contrary.  I  know  of  no  other  city 
with  a  more  deep-rooted  Americanism  and  no  city  with  an  in¬ 
stitution  more  dominated  by  a  great  American  idea  for  the 
private  and  the  public  good,  an  idea  greatly  executed  by  the 
men  and  women  who  undertook  the  labor  of  putting  that  idea 
into  action  through  the  years  in  the  Drexel  Institute.  And  it 


4 


is  the  opinion  of  those  most  competent  to  judge  that  the 
Drexel  idea  and  its  execution  mark  one  of  the  great  land¬ 
marks  of  American  educational  history. 

What  is  the  Drexel  idea?  How  has  it  been  carried  into 
action?  What  is  the  effect  of  this  idea  on  the  life  of  the 
Institute?  Those  are  very  pertinent  questions  in  this  historic 
time. 

To  begin  with,  we  know  that  Mr.  Drexel  wanted  boys 
and  girls,  men  and  women,  to  have  a  chance  through  training 
a  to  obtain  a  better  living  than  they  could  otherwise  obtain,  and 

to  become  better  citizens  through  that  training.  In  short,  he 
desired  to  make  a  skilled  worker  out  of  an  unskilled  worker 
>  (considering  every  man  and  woman  in  industry  as  a  worker) 

and  a  skilled  citizen  out  of  an  unskilled  citizen.  To  obtain 
that  end,  Mr.  Drexel  founded  a  school  of  arts,  science  and 
industry.  The  question  then  came,  in  which  of  the  two  great 
fields  of  industrial  education  the  Institute  should  operate.  ( i ) 
In  the  field  of  trade  training  or  vocational  education,  com¬ 
monly  so-called,  the  training  of  a  craftsman  to  do>  a  given  task 
with  his  or  her  own  hands  on  materials  with  a  machine — the 
work  of  the  lathe  hand  or  the  cook.  (2)  Or  in  the  field  of 
technical  education,  the  training  of  the  designer  who  brings 
an  idea  into  material  existence,  of  the  constructor  who  brings 
together  the  work  of  other  men,  of  the  teacher-supervisor 
who  gives  knowledge  to  others  and  sees  that  it  is  carried  out — 
specifically  in  the  fields  of  the  foreman,  the  engineer,  the  secre¬ 
tary,  the  dietitian,  the  domestic  science  teacher. 

So  far  as  I  know  no  school  has  ever  been  successfully  and 
permanently  carried  out  in  both  these  fields — technical  and 
vocational.  Each  school  must  choose  one  or  the  other.  Many 
educational  plans  have  gone  to  wreck  which  have  tried  both. 
.  Faculties,  equipments  and  aims  are  wholly  separate  in  each 

field.  So,  very  wisely  the  technical  field — the  field  of  learning 
above  the  trade  school,  was  chosen  by  Mr.  Drexel,  and  in  that 
y  field  lies  the  purpose  of  the  school.  For  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  the  plans  for  the  building,  equipment,  library, 
faculty  organization  and  curricula  have  been  almost  entirely 
made  with  that  chief  end  in  view. 

To  do  that  much  and  to  form  so  clear  cut  a  policy  at  that 
time  was  a  great  achievement,  but  Mr.  Drexel  went  farther 


5 


and  with  a  breadth  of  vision  almost,  if  not  quite  unparalleled 
under  similar  circumstances,  he  provided  for  the  future  life  of 
the  school  and  for  a  means  for  the  Institute  to  meet  the  chang¬ 
ing  conditions  of  the  world.  “I  know  that  the  world  is  going  to 
change  and,  therefore,  the  Institute  must  change  with  it  and 
I  do  not  want  to  tie  it  up,”  he  said  to  his  family.  And  so  instead 
of  laying  down  the  lines  on  which  the  Institute  should  proceed 
he  outlined  a  policy  that  the  Executive  Officer  of  the  Board 
should  do  two  things — (i)  keep  constantly  in  touch  with  the 
progress  of  the  world  “at  home  and  abroad,”  and  (2)  con¬ 
stantly  report  the  facts  to  the  Trustees  as  the  basis  for  the 
determination  of  their  policies.  Thus  he  created  the  funda¬ 
mental  basis  of  the  Drexel  idea.  Thus  he  made  it  possible  for 
the  Institute  to  remain  a  living  monument  for  all  time,  its 
work  sharpened  to  the  needs  of  the  time,  its  policies  neither 
of  the  Chinese  nor  Syndicalist  type,  but  truly  American,  a 
policy  of  ordered  growth,  building  the  best  of  the  new  on  the 
best  of  the  old  and  meeting  the  needs  of  the  day  on  the  basis 
of  fact  and  not  of  tradition  or  of  wild  fantasy. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  fortunate  for  the  carrying 
out  of  this  great  ideal  of  American  education  than  the  fact 
that  we  can  be  so  sure  of  Mr.  Drexel’s  idea  and  wishes.  There 
has  never  been  a  time  in  the  twenty-six  years  of  the  Institute’s 
life  that  at  least  half  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  has  not  been 
made  up  of  Mr.  Drexel’s  family,  partners,  business  associates 
and  personal  friends,  and  today,  as  always,  there  sit  on  the 
Board  those  who  worked  with  him  in  the  creation  of  the 
Institute  from  its  beginning  and  who  have  watched  every  step 
of  the  way  with  care.  To  which  we  can  add  the  thousand 
memories  of  his  sons  and  daughter,  and  of  his  intimate  friends, 
such  as  Mrs.  Childs  and  others,  who  knew  of  the  constant 
efforts  of  Mr.  Drexel  and  of  Mr.  Drexel’s  great  co-worker, 
George  W.  Childs. 

It  is  of  the  development  of  the  Drexel  idea  during  th6 
period  of  the  last  six  years — practically  the  period  of  the  great 
war — that  I  wish  particularly  to  speak  today. 

The  last  six  years  have  been  unquestionably  the  most 
trying  period  of  history  for  educational  institutions  everywhere. 
Five  years  ago  this  summer  the  great  war  broke  forth  and 
clouded  all  the  world  and  two  years  ago  we  entered  into  that 


6 


national  struggle  for  existence.  Day  after  day  brought  stag¬ 
gering  shocks  to  every  educational  institution  in  the  land.  In 
the  last  twelve  months,  alone,  we  have  seen  the  Institute  put 
almost  wholly  on  war  work,  devastated  by  the  influenza,  quar¬ 
antined  for  weeks,  then  suddenly  torn  from  war  work  in 
December,  and  now  rebuilding  in  the  most  unsettled  months  of 
preliminary  reconstruction. 

With  all  this  we  have  seen  the  greatest  economic  changes 
appear.  Today  a  dollar  buys  less  than  half  of  what  it  would 
buy  six  years  ago.  Equipment  has  been  practically  out  of  the 
market  because  of  the  devotion  of  all  equipment  business  houses 
to  war  work.  The  volunteer  service,  the  draft,  and  the  indus¬ 
trial  needs  have  taken  our  faculty  and  our  students  by  scores, 
while  over  all,  throughout  the  war,  the  cloud  of  the  advance  of 
the  Hun,  was  ever  before  us. 

If  ever  there  was  a  time  to  try  out  the  practical  value  of 
an  idea,  it  has  been  in  these  last  six  years.  It  is  very  pertinent 
to  each  of  us  to  see  how  the  Drexel  idea  has  been  operated 
during  those  years,  to  see  what  results  it  has  produced  and  to 
see  where  the  Institute  stands  today  with  respect  to  the  fu¬ 
ture. 

Six  years  ago,  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Institute,  at 
the  end  of  the  period  of  service  of  the  first  president,  determined 
to  have  a  complete  survey  made  in  accordance  with  the  spirit 
of  the  Drexel  idea,  of  the  existing  demand  for  technical  educa¬ 
tion  in  Philadelphia,  of  the  means  for  supplying  that  demand, 
of  the  place  of  the  Drexel  Institute  in  the  scheme  of  education 
and  of  the  way  in  which  the  Institute  could  most  effectively 
carry  out  its  work.  The  only  instructions  given  to  the  engineer 
who  undertook  the  survey  were  to  get  the  facts  and  propose  a 
plan  based  on  the  facts. 

The  survey  was  made,  considered  at  numerous  meetings 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and  a  group  of  policies  determined 
upon  to  be  worked  out  through  a  period  of  years.  In  addition 
to  the  stating  of  a  group  of  policies,  it  was  determined  that 
the  survey  should  be  made  continuous.  As  a  result  of  this 
action,  year  after  year,  and  month  after  month,  surveys  have 
been  made  and  plans  based  upon  those  surveys,  submitted  to 
the  Board  with  reports  upon  the  operation  of  the  plans.  The 
whole  work  represents  undoubtedly  the  largest  continued  ex- 


7 


amination  of  educational  facts  and  policies  ever  carried  on  by 
a  single  institution.  During  this  time,  beside  the  monthly 
meetings  of  the  Board,  numerous  special  committee  meetings 
have  been  held  and  certain  remarkable  facts  appear.  First: 
No  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  or  of  the  Executive  Com¬ 
mittee  has  ever  had  to  adjourn  for  want  of  a  quorum,  no  vote 
has  ever  been  taken  which  was  not  unanimous,  and  no  meet¬ 
ing  of  the  Board  or  Committee  has  taken  place  at  which  the 
President  of  the  Institute  was  not  in  attendance,  but  one  meet¬ 
ing  at  which  the  Secretary  of  the  Institute  was  not  present, 
only  three  at  which  the  President  of  the  Board  was  not  present, 
and  none  at  which  a  majority  of  the  Executive  Committee  were 
not  present.  At  none  has  a  policy  been  adopted  without  a  sup¬ 
porting  report  as  to  the  facts  and  in  no  case  have  changes 
affecting  the  continuance  of  courses  or  to  other  matters  of  the 
kind  been  passed  until  they  had  been  considered  at  two  and 
generally  at  three  meetings.  This  is  a  record  of  devotion  to 
a  trust  which  has  seldom  been  equalled. 

Six  years  ago  the  survey  showed  that  the  physical  plant 
and  equipment  was  greatly  in  need  of  repair  and  renewal.  For 
some  years  previous  there  had  been  an  increasing  deficit.  The 
teachers,  notwithstanding  many  were  of  admirable  efficiency, 
were  not  all  fully  paid  or  fully  prepared  for  their  work.  Many 
students,  through  lack  of  adequate  entrance  regulations,  found 
themselves  unable  to  reap  the  full  benefit  of  their  courses.  The 
standardization  of  courses  had  not  then  received  sufficient 
attention. 

In  six  years,  as  noted  above,  the  purchasing  power  of  the 
dollar  has  decreased  by  more  than  one-half.  Twice  as  effective 
operation,  therefore,  would  have  been  required  to  keep  the 
Institute  at  the  point  where  it  could  begin  to  advance.  It  is 
no  small  task  to  have  held  our  own,  therefore,  on  the  basis 
of  the  original  survey.  What  more  has  been  done?  Over  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  has  gone  into  the  physical  plant  and 
equipment  in  permanent  improvements,  and  the  physical  ad¬ 
vance  of  the  Institute  in  these  last  years  has  been  limited  chiefly 
by  the  lack  of  ability  to  get  equipment,  because  of  its  scarcity, 
because  of  war  conditions.  The  financial  deficit  disappeared 
on  the  first  year  of  the  six  years  in  question  and  has  not  reap¬ 
peared  since,  except  for  a  voluntary  war  contribution  of  the 


8 


present  year  which  will  be  taken  up  in  the  next  two  years.  The 
average  advance  in  teachers’  salaries  has  been  forty-one  per  cent. 
The  average  of  the  years  of  preparation  spent  by  the  teachers 
has  advanced  between  one  and  two  years.  Courses  which  were 
competitive  with  other  city  and  state  schools  have  ceased  to 
exist,  and  the  standing  of  our  courses  was  established  once 
for  all,  by  outside  opinion,  when  our  engineering  courses  given 
last  fall  were  publicly  praised  by  the  authorities  at  Washing¬ 
ton.  Our  dietetics  course  was  honored  by  being  made  the 
first  official  school  of  the  Medical  Corps,  U.  S.  Army,  and 
our  secretarial  school  was  made  the  first  official  school  for 
statistical  secretaries  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission  of  the 
9  United  States. 

All  this  is  due  primarily  to  Mr.  Drexel’s  idea  and  to  the 
carrying  out  of  that  idea  by  trustees  and  faculty.  The  Executive 
Officer  of  the  Board  has  been  only  the  means  through  which 
that  policy  has  been  put  into  effect.  Some  idea  of  the  work 
done  by  the  faculty  in  this  respect  may  be  gained  if  I  tell  you 
that  in  the  process  of  putting  into  action  the  policies  of  the 
reconstruction  period,  the  faculty  has  met  day  after  day,  week 
after  week,  at  eight  o’clock  in  the  morning  until  opportunity 
was  given  for  every  suggestion  to  be  made  and  until  agreement 
was  secured  in  writing  from  every  member  of  the  faculty  on 
every  point.  This  is  the  only  example  I  know  of  unamimous 
action  in  writing  on  the  part  of  trustees  and  the  entire  faculty 
down  to  the  last  instructor.  Once  more  the  wisdom  of  Mr. 
Drexel’s  idea  of  facts  first  and  policies  second  has  been  vin¬ 
dicated. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  Drexel  idea  works  most 
rapidly  with  circumstances  explainable  by  reason  and  that  in 
common  with  many  other  institutions  we  have  had  to  meet, 
/  during  this  critical  period  of  the  last  year  and  a  half,  a  group 

of  circumstances  as  eccentric  as  the  happenings  in  “Alice  in 
Wonderland.”  The  Drexel  idea  can  do  little  in  explaining 
>  such  circumstances  as  these.  As  we  have  seen,  this  idea  works 

upon  facts,  not  upon  fancies,  and  it  is  impossible  to  analyze 
fancies  as  disorganized  and  wild  as  those  of  which  the  Walrus 
spoke  in  that  historic  conversation  in  which  the  Walrus  de¬ 
veloped  his  syndicalistic  acts  upon  the  persons  of  the  un¬ 
fortunate  oysters.  You  will  remember  the  stanza  in  which 


9 


the  Walrus  gave  his  views,  a  stanza  which  I  will  quote  and 
leave  you  to  make  the  application  for  yourself. 

“The  Time  has  come,”  the  Walrus  said, 

“To  talk  of  many  things; 

Of  shoes — and  ships — and  sealing  wax — 

Of  cabbages — and  kings — 

And  why  the  sea  is  boiling  hot 
And  whether  pigs  have  wings.” 

And  now  we  pass  on  to  really  serious  matters. 

I  have  taken  sometime  to  develop  the  history  of  the  past 
with  the  purpose  of  gaining  light  for  the  future,  for,  as  a  great 
historian  has  said,  “I  know  of  no  way  to  find  the  road  of  the 
future  except  by  the  use  of  the  lamp  of  the  past.”  Suppose  we 
summarize  after  these  six  years  of  continuous  study,  what  that 
lamp  has  done  for  the  Institute  of  today  and  see  what  it  may 
do  for  the  future. 

To  bring  about  profitable  action  in  any  institution,  indus¬ 
trial,  commercial  or  educational,  you  must  have  four  things, 
a  plant,  finance,  a  personnel  and  a  policy.  What  is  the  con¬ 
dition  of  the  Institute  today  in  these  respects,  only  six  months 
after  the  end  of  the  great  war,  after  the  six  most  trying  years 
of  American  educational  history  ? 

As  regards  plant,  the  effects  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
dollars  that  have  gone  into  improvements  in  the  main  building 
and  in  East  Hall  are  evident  to  anyone  who  knew  the  old  con¬ 
dition.  The  east  lot  has  been  acquired  by  the  Institute,  thus 
insuring  light  and  air  on  the  east  side.  Seven  student  resident 
houses  have  been  fully  equipped  and  organized,  and  thousands 
of  dollars  have  gone  into  equipment,  books  and  supplies. 

As  regards  finance,  we  have  come  through  the  war  one 
of  the  very  small  number  of  institutions  not  crippled  by  its 
devastating  effects. 

As  regards  personnel,  the  four  competent,  trained  and 
experienced  operating  officers,  Dean  Bringhurst,  Dean  Cherry, 
Director  Spivey  and  Registrar  MacIntyre,  are  bringing  their 
already  effective  organizations  into  adjustment  with  the  de¬ 
mands  of  this  new  world,  ably  aided  by  a  strong  and  experi¬ 
enced  faculty.  Only  a  minimum  of  positions  are  left  vacant, 
chiefly  by  advancement  to  higher  positions,  by  war  conditions 
and  by  the  constant  loss  always  expected  through  marriage. 


10 


*Only  two  vacancies  exist  of  full  professorial  grade,  mechanical 
engineering  and  mathematics,  the  first  held  by  an  acting  head 
this  year — Prof.  Dowell,  who  now  takes  on,  in  addition  to 
regular  Institute  work,  new  work  in  industrial  relations;  the 
second,  mathematics,  held  by  Mrs.  Brown,  for  many  years, 
who  leaves  to  go  to  the  only  other  institution  to  which  we  would 
release  her — Mr.  Brown.  Candidates  are  now  under  consid¬ 
eration  for  both  these  positions. 

And  the  finest  thing  about  the  year  has  been  the  splendid 
*  co-operation  and  earnest  agreement  of  the  faculty,  a  co-opera¬ 

tion  and  agreement  steadily  increasing  as  the  effectiveness  of 
our  lines  of  growth  in  the  new  world  become  sharper  and  more 
t  evident. 

I  can  speak  of  this  more  personally,  due  to  the  fact  that 
for  four  months  from  the  going  out  of  the  government  work 
to  the  coming  of  Dean  Bringhurst,  in  addition  to  my  regular 
duties  as  President,  I  assumed  the  operating  work  which  be¬ 
longs  to  the  office  of  Dean  of  the  Faculty,  giving  that  work 
over  to  the  Dean  on  his  arrival.  From  that  personal  stand¬ 
point  I  wish  to  express  my  deep  appreciation  of  the  faculty 
efforts. 

Plant,  finance,  personnel,  all  of  these  are,  however,  inspired 
and  directed  by  policies.  What  is  the  future  of  an  institution 
directed  by  the  Drexel  idea  of  policies  based  on  facts?  To 
answer  this  in  the  summarization  of  closing,  let  us  look  back 
to  our  beginning. 

I  began  by  considering  the  serious  conditions  existing  in 
this  new  world  in  which  we  live  today,  and  by  referring  to  the 
three  types  of  education. 

The  first  living  in  the  past  and  not  using  the  best  of  the 
present,  typified  by  the  Chinese.  Men  who  follow  this  belief 
t  cannot  see  that  education  dies  if  it  does  not  build ;  they  cannot 

distinguish  between  unreasoning  change  and  the  American 
theory  of  keeping  all  that  is  done  abreast  with  the  greatest 
>  advance  of  the  age. 

The  second,  living  only  in  the  future  and  destroying  all 
the  best  of  the  past,  typified  by  the  syndicalist.  Men  who  fol- 


*  Since  this  Commencement  speech  was  written  all  vacancies  of  pro¬ 
fessorial  rank  in  the  Institute  have  been  filled. 


11 


low  this  belief  would  destroy  the  potential  wealth  of  education 
in  a  will-of-the-wisp  chase  for  a  doubtful  good. 

The  third  uses  the  best  of  the  past  and  builds  the  best  of 
the  present  on  to  that  past,  year  by  year.  That  is  the  Ameri¬ 
can  policy,  and  it  is  the  policy  of  the  Drexel  Institute. 

To  use  that  American  policy  to  the  greatest  advantage  I 
know  no  better  path  than  by  the  use  of  the  Drexel  idea  which 
has  done  so  much  for  us  of  the  Institute  directly,  and,  indi¬ 
rectly,  has  done  so  much  for  education.  If  the  determination 
of  policies  on  the  basis  of  fact  has  done  the  deeds  recorded  here, 
in  the  past  six  trying  years,  it  can  do  its  work  with  infinitely 
greater  force  in  the  years  of  peace  which  we  believe  are  at 
hand. 

Summarizing  as  I  close,  we  may  say  through  that  idea 
has  come  about  a  greatly  needed  clarification  of  ideals.  Our 
field — the  industrial  field — is  known  and  our  development  of 
technical  education  within  that  field  is  established.  Our  special 
groups  of  technical  training  are  known.  Our  end  is  to  make 
the  skilled  engineer,  sub-engineer,  dietitian,  secretary  and 
teacher.  Our  curricula  used  for  that  end  have  been  determined 
by  long-continued  and  arduous  study  of  what  is  best  in  subject- 
matter,  and  so  determined  may  be  kept  abreast  of  the  best 
knowledge  of  the  time.  Our  work  is  constantly  broadening 
in  the  fields  we  have  chosen  and  now  covers  the  whole  of  those 
fields  from  the  earliest  work  of  the  foreman  to  the  granting 
of  a  bachelor’s  degree.  Our  capacities  of  plant  and  finance  are 
constantly  being  studied  to  determine  how  they  can  be  used 
more  effectively. 

It  is  in  that  spirit  of  ordered  growth,  ordered  building, 
based  on  the  use  of  the  union  of  the  best  experience  of  the 
world,  from  within  and  without  our  walls,  in  which  lies  our  cer¬ 
tainty  of  future  progress.  For  any  student  or  citizen  who 
asks  quo  vadis — Whither  do  you  go — we  can  answer  specifically 
where  we  are  going,  how  we  intend  to  get  there  and  who  is 
to  do  the  work.  There  are  few  institutions  in  America  or 
Europe  today  that  can  do  that,  and  that  we  can  do  it  is  due  to 
the  trustees  and  faculty  who  make  a  living  thing  of  the  vision 
of  Anthony  J.  Drexel. 


12 


THE  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES 
of 

THE  DREXEL  INSTITUTE 


Alexander  Van  Rensselaer,  M.A.,  President  of  the  Board 
Edward  T.  Stotesbury,  Vice  President  of  the  Boaxd 
Herman  Dercum,  Secretary  of  the  Board 


A.  J.  Drexel  Biddle,  F.R.G.S. 

Livingstone  L.  Biddle,  A.B. 

Horace  Churchman 
Samuel  M.  Curwen 

Alexander  A.  J.  Dallas  Dixon,  A.B.,  LL.B. 

Anthony  J.  Drexel 

George  W.  C.  Drexel 

John  R.  Drexel 

Allen  Evans 

Edgar  C.  Felton,  A.B. 

Hollis  Godfrey,  Sc.D.,  D.C.L. 

Charles  D.  Hart,  A.M.,  M.D. 

C.  Hartman  Kuhn 

Robert  G.  LeConte,  A.B.,  M.D. 

D.  J.  McCarthy,  M.D. 

Joseph  Moore,  Jr.,  A.M. 

Effingham  B.  Morris,  A.M.,  LL.B. 

Arthur  E.  Newbold 

A.  J.  Drexel  Paul,  A.B. 

J.  Rodman  Paul,  A.M. 

Charlemagne  Tower,  A.B,,  LL.D. 


Hollis  Godfrey,  Sc.D.,  D.C.L.,  President  of  the  Drexel 
Institute 

John  S.  Pearson,  B.S.  in  M.E.,  Assistant  to  the  President 
Elizabeth  F.  Baker,  (D.I.),  Secretary  to  the  President 
Paul  L.  Mitten,  Assistant  Secretary  to  the  President 

Frances  E.  MacIntyre,  M.S.,  Registrar 

Emma  V.  Sudell  (D.I.),  Bursar 

Helen  S.  Harrison  (D.I.),  Recorder 

Helen  G.  Johnson  (D.I.),  Assistant  to  the  Registrar 

13 


ADMINISTRATIVE  OFFICERS  OF  THE  DAY  SCHOOL 


John  H.  Bringhurst,  b.c.e.,  Dean,  Professor  of  Engineering  Design 
Mabel  Dickson  Cherry,  r.s..  Dean  of  Women,  Professor  of  Hygiene 
Una  Sudell,  (d.i.)  Assistant  to  the  Deans,  Assistant  Professor  of  Office 
Organization 

Mary  Verlenden,  a.b..  Bureau  of  Recommendations 


ADMINISTRATIVE  OFFICERS  OF  THE  EVENING  SCHOOL 

Willis  T.  Spivey,  b.s.  in  c.e.,  c.e..  Director  of  Evening  Courses,  Professor 
of  Industrial  Engineering 

Maxwell  Cutting,  b.s.  in  e.e.,  Assistant  to  the  Director,  Assistant  Pro¬ 
fessor  of  Electrical  Engineering 

Ernest  Calhoun,  b.s..  Assistant  to  the  Director,  Instructor  in  Industrial 
Engineering  _ 


THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  DAY  SCHOOL  EXCLUSIVE  OF  THE 
OFFICERS  NAMED  ABOVE 

Carl  Lewis  Altmaier,  b.o.,  m.s..  Professor  of  Secretarial  Studies 
J.  Harland  Billings,  b.s.  in  m.e..  Professor  of  Mechanical  Engineering 
Robert  C.  Disque,  b.l.,  b.s.  in  e.e..  Professor  of  Electrical  Engineering 
Grace  Godfrey,  b.s.  in  home  economics.  Professor  of  Domestic  Science 
Caroline  A.  M.  Hall,  m.s..  Professor  of  Domestic  Arts 
Lieutenant  James  P.  Lyons,  u.s.a..  Professor  of  Military  Science 
Edward  D.  McDonald,  m.a.,  Professor  of  English 
Walter  E.  Rowe,  b.s.  in  c.e.,  Professor  of  Civil  Engineering 
J.  Peterson  Ryder,  b.s.,  Librarian,  Professor  of  Physical  Education 
Colonel  Walter  Dill  Scott,  u.s.a.,  ph.d.,  Professor  of  Psychology 
Henry  C.  Wolff,  ph.d..  Professor  of  Mathematics 
James  J.  Barrett,  b.s..  Assistant  Professor  of  Physics 
Jennie  Collingwood,  (d.i.)  Assistant  Professor  of  Domestic  Arts 
Clarence  G.  Dill,  (d.i.)  Assistant  Professor  of  Mathematics 
Dawson  Dowell,  b.s.  in  m.e..  Assistant  Professor  of  Mechanical  Eu*- 
gineering 

Ernest  J.  Hall,  a.m..  Assistant  Professor  of  English 
Beardsley  Ruml,  a.b.,  ph.d..  Assistant  Professor  of  Psychology 
Humphreys  O.  Siegmund,  b.s.  in  e.e..  Assistant  Professor  of  Electrical 
Engineering 

Leon  D.  Stratton,  m.s..  Assistant  Professor  of  Chemistry 
Leda  F.  White,  a.m..  Assistant  Professor  of  Statistics 


Doris  Bird,  a.b..  Instructor  in  English 
Gladys  G.  Bond,  b.a..  Instructor  in  Domestic  Science 
Carolus  M.  Broomall,  Instructor  in  Civil  Engineering 
R.  Willette  Clinger,  Instructor  in  Woodworking 
Corinne  R.  Cochran,  (d.i.)  Instructor  in  Stenography 
Edna  B.  Dayton,  m.d..  Instructor  in  Physiological  Chemistry,  Bacteriology 
and  Physiology 


14 


Agnes  M.  Dickson,  (d.i.)  Instructor  in  Domestic  Science 
M.  Alice  Hagarty,  b.a.,  Instructor  in  Stenography 
Leo  Henry  Hechinger,  b.s.,  Instructor  in  Chemistry 
Martha  W.  Hook,  (d.i.)  Instructor  in  Institutional  Cookery 
Gladys  G.  Ide,  ph.d..  Instructor  in  Psychology 
Nellie  M.  Lotz,  (d.i.)  Instructor  in  Domestic  Arts 
Frank  H.  Mancill,  ll.b..  Instructor  in  Accounting  and  Mathematics 
Emma  M.  Murphy,  Department  of  Hygiene,  Wellesley,  Instructor  in 
Physical  Training 

Nell  B.  North,  b.a..  Instructor  in  Domestic  Arts 
Ella  Pier,  r.n..  Nurse  and  Instructor  in  Home  Nursing 
Charles  E.  Randa,  b.s.  in  e.e..  Instructor  in  Electrical  Engineering 
Katherine  M.  Trimble,  (d.i.)  Assistant  in  Library  and  Instructor  in  Ref¬ 
erence  Work 

Henry  A.  Wanner,  b.s.  in  chem.,  Instructor  in  Chemistry 
Helen  M.  Wells,  Special  Course,  Iowa  State  Teachers'  College,  In¬ 
structor  in  Institutional  Management 
Frank  H.  M.  Williams,  a.b..  Instructor  in  Mathematics 

James  M.  Dickinson,  Organist 
Henry  Hotz,  Chorister 
Elizabeth  C.  Niemann,  Curator 


